CollectiveLab

Lessons from a Zero Gravity Toilet

The ol' Zero Gravity Toilet from 2001: A Space Odyssey requires at least 8 long paragraphs of instruction before even stepping inside. Dr. Dave Bowman here may be thinkin he'll just hold it till we get back.

I've had to lay out lists of instruction before, a basic primer:

1. A good copy editor is a designer's best friend 

2. Either an icon for each step (which could be overkill), but at least some visuals to illustrate key steps 

3. A Title for each step, followed by short description

4. Possibly a color variation between Title and Copy, to make it scannable

5. Negative space, don't constrain yourself unnecessarily  

Some advice from the future.

Central Nervous System

This lovely quote from InspireUX, a new blog featuring "words to inspire user experience designers."  A great start, however it lacks the ability to post directly to your blog, and if you email it to yourself, comes through as a bunch of text.  Not sexy enough!  I think I may message the site's editor Catriona about it -- perhaps she could build a nice little Sprout widget for her quotes?

Michael Tchao, GM of Nike Plus

Loc Le Meur speaks to Michael Tchao about Nike+.  Good presentation of the oft-heralded successful marriage of Product & Marketing.

Houston, We've Got a Trend

Seems like the idea this year is an homage to Helvetica.  Was it the documentary that did it?  Also the notion is big bold buttons, no frills UI, which I think is a reaction to all the over-articulated function-rich applications online.  Even the venerable Paul Isakson is right on board, and ya know, I think I may be next. 

( It is worthwhile to note that the three examples above are squarely in the music genre.)